Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars.

Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there.

After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive—and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive.

Chances are, though, he won't have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old "human error" are much more likely to kill him first.

But Mark isn't ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills—and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit—he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?

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Review

“Terrific stuff, a crackling good read that devotees of space travel will devour like candy…succeeds on several levels and for a variety of reasons, not least of which is its surprising plausibility.”—USA Today

“An impressively geeky debut…the technical details keep the story relentlessly precise and the suspense ramped up. And really, how can anyone not root for a regular dude to prove the U-S-A still has the Right Stuff?”--Entertainment Weekly

“Gripping…[features] a hero who can solve almost every problem while still being hilarious. It’s hard not to be swept up in [Weir’s] vision and root for every one of these characters. Grade: A.”—AVClub.com

“Andy Weir delivers with The Martian...astory for readers who enjoy thrillers, science fiction, non-fiction, or flat-out adventure [and] an authentic portrayal of the future of space travel.”--Associated Press

"A gripping tale of survival in space [that] harkens back to the early days of science fiction by masters such as Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke."--San Jose Mercury News

“One of the best thrillers I’ve read in a long time. It feels so real it could almost be nonfiction, and yet it has the narrative drive and power of a rocket launch. This is Apollo 13 times ten.”--Douglas Preston, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Impact and Blasphemy“A book I just couldn’t put down! It has the very rare combination of a good, original story, interestingly real characters and fascinating technical accuracy…reads like “MacGyver” meets “Mysterious Island.”--Astronaut Chris Hadfield, Commander of the International Space Station and author of An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth

"The best book I've read in ages. Clear your schedule before you crack the seal. This story will take your breath away faster than a hull breech. Smart, funny, and white-knuckle intense, The Martian is everything you want from a novel."--Hugh Howey, New York Times bestselling author of Wool

“The Martian kicked my ass! Weir has crafted a relentlessly entertaining and inventive survival thriller, a MacGyver-trapped-on-Mars tale that feels just as real and harrowing as the true story of Apollo 13.”—Ernest Cline, New York Times bestselling author of Ready Player One“Gripping…shapes up like Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe as written by someone brighter.”--Larry Niven, multiple Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author of the Ringworld series and Lucifer’s Hammer

“Humankind is only as strong as the challenges it faces, and The Martian pits human ingenuity (laced with more humor than you’d expect) against the greatest endeavor of our time — survival on Mars. A great read with an inspiring attention to technical detail and surprising emotional depth. Loved it!"--Daniel H. Wilson, New York Times bestselling author of Robopocalypse

“The tension simply never lets up, from the first page to the last, and at no point does the believability falter for even a second. You can't shake the feeling that this could all really happen.”—Patrick Lee, New York Times bestselling author of The Breach and Ghost Country "Strong, resilent, and gutsy. It's Robinson Crusoe on Mars, 21st century style. Set aside a chunk of free time when you start this one. You're going to need it because you won't want to put it down."—Steve Berry, New York Times bestselling author of The King’s Deception and The Columbus Affair

“An excellent first novel…Weir laces the technical details with enough keen wit to satisfy hard science fiction fan and general reader alike [and] keeps the story escalating to a riveting conclusion.”—Publisher’s Weekly (starred)

"Riveting...a tightly constructed and completely believable story of a man's ingenuity and strength in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds."--Booklist

“Sharp, funny and thrilling, with just the right amount of geekery…Weir displays a virtuosic ability to write about highly technical situations without leaving readers far behind. The result is a story that is as plausible as it is compelling.”—Kirkus

"Weir combines the heart-stopping with the humorous in this brilliant debut novel...by placing a nail-biting life-and-death situation on Mars and adding a snarky and wise-cracking nerdy hero, Weir has created the perfect mix of action and space adventure."--Library Journal (starred) “A perfect novel in almost every way, The Martian may already have my vote for best book of 2014.”—Crimespree Magazine

“A page-turning thriller…this survival tale with a high-tech twist will pull you right in.”—Suspense Magazine

About the Author

ANDY WEIR was first hired as a programmer for a national laboratory at age fifteen and has been working as a software engineer ever since. He is also a lifelong space nerd and a devoted hobbyist of subjects like relativistic physics, orbital mechanics, and the history of manned spaceflight. The Martian is his first novel.

Most helpful customer reviews

This book was so good it's hard to sum up which parts of it were the best!Anyone who starts this book should prepare to do nothing else until they are finished it---be it the actual textual book, or the audio version. Which is Amazing! Narrator R.C. Bray does an excellent job and is pitch perfect at bringing the witty, intelligent, sarcastic and charming Mark Watney to life. Initially, I felt Bray's voice had a little too much rasp, a little too much grit---but the farther on I listened, the more I felt he was the perfect and only narrator to really capture the character of Mark. He is also deadly with accents, and there are a lot of them in this book.

Premise: Stranded on Mars; Basically no chance of survival; Everyone at NASA thinks Mark is dead, including his crew mates who left Mars in a hurry during a vicious sand storm that scrubbed the mission. Now Mark must hatch plan after plan in order to figure out how to survive, get rescued and get in touch with Earth. The story is just brilliant-- Entertaining, exciting and satisfying.

"Duct Tape is magic and should be worshipped." I guess even NASA can't improve on Duct tape. Mark's ingenuity and sheer determination are a complete Pleasure to read. He is just a work-horse character who, despite massive challenges and (at times) complete failures, perseveres. Some of the stuff he figures out and MacGyver's together are nothing short of genius, and he does it all with a sharp sense of humor that had me laughing out loud.

This is current science-fiction at its absolute best. I haven't enjoyed a story this much since I devoured the "Wool" series by Howey. Which I also did not put down until I was finished--- Real life be damned!

This was one of the best Science Fiction stories I have read, and I've been reading SF for over 40 years, ever since I first picked up a book by AC Clarke when I was in junior high. The Martian is fast paced with great characters and an inventive plot. The reason I only gave it four stars is that it could have been even better. The author does an outstanding job of developing the engineering and problem solving, but there is little on the science and landscape of Mars. If Andy Weir had woven in the stunning views like those seen by Curiosity, Spirit and Opportunity, I would have rated The Martian as the finest SF book I have ever read.

You’re on a mission to Mars, and all your crewmates have left the planet, leaving you behind, because they think you’re dead.

This is the premise of The Martian, probably one of the best science-fiction books I’ve read in a long time.

The plot is as simple as can be: a dude is left behind on Mars and must survive until others can come rescue him. It’s Robinson Crusoe for the space age. It’s a story that’s been explored in many different settings and times, but it’s always the surviving character itself who makes or breaks the story.

In this case, Mark Watney is our survivor, and he’s one hell of a dude to watch. He’s ingenious, stubborn and hilarious. Most of the book is made up of his log, in the first person, with some sections in the third person for the people at NASA and his crewmates on the ship Hermes.

It’s Watney’s voice that carries the story. Despite absolutely insurmountable odds (how do you grow food on Mars when your supplies disappear? How do you communicate with Earth when your communications are down? How do you drive for a month without going insane?), he manages to solider on, and do so with optimism and humour. Because, I guess, if you fall to fatalism and cynicism, you wouldn’t last very long, alone, for a year and a half on Mars…

Not being a scientist of any kind, I can’t talk about the scientific accuracy of the book. It’s all very believable though, with just a touch of future technology that’s not so unimaginable today. There’s never any mention of the year, but it could be next year, or it could be in 20. It makes the book approachable that way, and any science is filtered through the lens of an actual human being applying it, so we get a lot more information about results than about math. Which I appreciated.Read more ›

Excellent! What a thrill ride of a novel. Very engaging and plausible, the story is very well researched and believable. Obvouisly Mr. Weir did a lot of work getting this book to be as realistic as it is. Working out how things might work on a future Mars mission and then figuring out how to jury-rig (or "MacGyver") all those solutions must have taken a lot of time, study, and a very good imagination. As a result, the reader can be sure that the story, situations, and solutions are very real. And the mostly first person narration puts the reader right there on Mars with Watney. All together, it's a book that one cannot put down. Even if you're not a science fiction fan, this is a human drama that anyone can relate to. If you're wondering if this is a book you should read, don't wonder any longer but purchase and read it; you'll be happy you did.

This was an excellent story. The abandoned astronaut, Mark Watney, somehow keeps an endearing sense of humour as all around him is bleak. I appreciated the story branching into other viewpoints, as a straight Mars travelogue would probably have been a bit tedious. The only reason I gave this book four and not five stars is I found the technical explanations for what Watney was doing sometimes ran a bit long, and it's a little hard to believe a botanist would have the chemistry and physics knowledge he does (then again, he does say he was the mission chemist's backup, so maybe it's not too far fetched). I'm waiting for the movie!